Fractured
by Ghostly Melody
Summary: About four years after the end of the game, Ellie and Joel must contend with infected and human forces outside the settlement's walls. The most difficult task, however, will be contending with each other. May include eventual Ellie/Joel.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thought I'd post a fic here regarding my favorite video game. :)**

**Summary: About four years after the end of the game, Ellie and Joel must contend with infected and human forces outside the settlement's walls. The most difficult task, however, will be contending with each other.**  
**May include eventual Ellie/Joel.**

Fractured

Chapter One

They were dying.

She was certain of it.

There was no other pragmatic answer. It was evident in the way their hollowed eyes blinked languidly, the way their stomachs sloped inward, their shoulders curled as if the world was imprinted upon them. It was also evident in their words, or lack thereof.

Granted, it's not as if they'd been very amiable.

But they were all that she had left to defend and contend for.

That, and Joel.

Ellie readjusted the hood of her battered green jacket to fortify against the gnawing cold. Disregarding the fervent rumbling of her stomach, she brushed past the tangle of her fellow townspeople. Many were inclined to glowering at her as she strode, yet a handful offered brittle smiles.

She returned neither.

By then, a light flurry of snow had begun to descend upon the dwindling town in Jackson. The late evening sun was barely perceptible across the stoic buildings, and casted frail shadows upon the swath of bodies. Ellie trudged through the thickening herd of bemoaners, eyes deadpan.

"Ellie!"

She lashed her head around at the sound of her name being called. Tommy swerved his way through the mash of bodies, attempting to reach the young woman.

"Hey, Tommy," Ellie's voice remained level as she stared up at him. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you knew were Joel was?" Tommy asked, then sighed at the shake of her auburn ponytail. "Damn. He was supposed to be here a half hour ago."

Ellie parted her lips, about to respond, when the person in question materialized from her peripheral. "Joel—where the hell have you been? The meeting is about to start."

Joel scrubbed the back of his neck with his palm, a sheepish look adhered to his face. He looked more weathered than usual. "Sorry, I uh...was held up."

"Whatever, man," Tommy brushed his older sibling's tardiness aside with the wave of his hand. He pressed back into the throng of people, making his way to the front to deliver his announcement.

The wind increased tempo, sending clusters of withered leaves to flourish about their feet. Ellie squinted against the gale. She crammed her hands deeper into the threadbare pockets of her jacket, refusing to meet Joel's attentive stare.

Ever since that one night, five months ago, they hadn't been on the best of terms.

She had heard all of it.

Joel extended his arm to brush Ellie's shoulder; she recoiled as soon as his skin made contact with her flimsy coat. With a sidelong glance, she hissed, "Don't. Fucking. Touch me."

Joel's arm regressed back to his side, to which Ellie exhaled with relief. She maneuvered away from him then, her green eyes fixated to Tommy as he began his harangue.

"I know we haven't been very...prosperous...this winter, but—"

"Prosperous?" A man from the back scoffed. "That's an understatement, and you know it. I haven't been able to feed my family in two weeks—!"

"Or clothe them adequately, for that matter!" hooted a woman hearer to the front.

"I know, I know, and I hear you all loud and clear," Tommy replied, hands raised in defense. "Don't worry, Maria and I have this under control."

"You call this under control?" The same man from the rear hollered.

"Hear me out," said Tommy, his eyes darting warily across the crowd. "With the crops doing so poorly, and the meat supply as low as it is, Maria and I have come to a consensus as to what to do. Of course, we'd need your vote, too."

No one objected to that.

Tommy exhaled audibly, arms akimbo. "We're gonna send a group out to get supplies."

Everyone stilled.

They hadn't needed to do that since last winter, with ailing results.

The flock that had been volunteered to scout the area and beyond had been met with ill reception. A quarter of the members returned, those of which were battered and combating with illness and starvation.

It wasn't a very popular concept.

"Are you fucking nuts?" cried a man from the back. "My son never came back to this shithole because of your supply run!"

"My dad is still recovering from last winter," a girl from the midst of the crowd seethed. "He's lucky to have returned."

"What other option do we have?" Tommy asked, his eyes probing the people. "Look. I know we haven't had the best year. Trust me when I say this wasn't my first choice. Please, I'm asking you all to listen. This isn't going to turn out like last time."

A few grunts and murmurs were exchanged in the crowd.

"Do we have any volunteers?" Tommy asked.

Not a soul stirred.

Ellie sensed Joel tense beside her, and she resisted the tendency to roll her eyes.

Then, the e thought struck her.

It came down like the pummeling of a n iron fist to her temple.

The decision was so fucking apparent— why hadn't she witnessed it before?

Ellie tilted her chin, her lips curling in a smirk. Her voice transcended the crowd, heralding her valor with two simplistic words. "I'll go."

Tommy's face solidified to one of momentary shock. "Are you sure, Ellie? Because we can find someone else—"

"I'm sure," Ellie rushed.

"Ellie," Joel growled out from her right. "Don't..."

"Alright," Tommy heaved heavily, his eyes adopting an almost sullen look. "Anyone else?"

"We'll be joining her."

Ellie shifted her scrupulous stare to the back of the crowd, where she discerned a trio of people bustling their way to the front. She took the opportunity and reciprocated their actions, slapping a gleeful smile on her face as she did so.

She halted at a firm grip on her elbow. Joel reeled her around, his grey eyes analyzing her. "Don't you think about going up there, Ellie."

"I'm not your daughter. You can't tell me what to do," Ellie bit out, wrenching free.

She began to slice through the crowd, toward Tommy, her step spry and almost vindictive at the same time. She paused, however, at the deep rumble which punctuated the air.

"I'm going," Joel grated out.

Without moving, Ellie silently cursed him.

Now, she had no means of escape! That was her scheme all along, wasn't it? To liberate herself from Joel.

"You don't need to—" Ellie started, trailing after him as he barreled ahead.

"Yes, I do," Joel spat, without fixing her with a second glance.

She was suddenly aware of the investigating eyes of the others upon her back, searing her skin despite the dilating intensity of the winter.

_Let them fucking stare_, she thought.

Ellie glowered, and stomped ahead.

As she begrudgingly took her place beside Joel, she began to feel leaking tendrils of regret slither throughout her mind.

The welfare of the town on her hands or not, she could care less about their fate.

**A/N: Hope it wasn't too short!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for the comments, guys. :) Glad you all are enjoying it so far! **

Chapter Two

Ellie ground her teeth against the winter chill, and preserved at her task.

A nuance of guilt had flickered across her brain the night before, in which she contemplated her role in the volunteer expedition. What was the point now? Joel was going to be adhered to her hip the entire journey, which would be an opportunity away from him squandered.

She moved with rapid, snapping motions as she tacked up her horse. Slinging the bridle about the mare's neck, she gave it a gentle tug then looped the tattered reins about its neck. She gave it a perfunctory pat to the muzzle before pushing away from the stall door.

She was awake before anyone everyone in town, which was quixotic for her. The lackadaisical strings of dawn were just beginning to appear upon the horizon, like fingerprints imprinted to a mirror. Her eyelids flickered as she relished the transition of violet to salmon, shoulders curling down in relaxation. She sighed. It had been quite some time since she'd been so...tranquil.

Ellie pressed her lips together at the sight of the impending dawn, wishing herself to be already amid the verdant spiraling of trees. She was about to venture outside of the stables when the idea came to her.

Bonnie, the Quarter Horse of which she attended to, gave an affable whinny in Ellie's direction.

The young woman turned and offered a smile. "Bonnie, I think I know what we're doing today."

Ellie grinned foolishly and began to saddle the horse, her fingers practically trembling with joy.

The others on the trip would be arriving in an hour or so, which allowed her ample time to escape and put distance between them.

It wasn't as if she hadn't done this before.

She led the steed out of the musty stables, feeling the frosty zephyr slick across her face as she ventured into the morning. Next, Ellie mounted, swinging her short legs over the horse in a graceless arc. She urged Bonnie into a walk, feeling an emotion akin to elation well up within her.

Then, she heard him.

"What the hell are you doin'?"

Ellie turned around sharply, her eyes aflame in rage.

Joel eyed her with an amalgam of suspicion and anguish.

He wasn't a moron. He knew precisely what she was doing.

Perhaps it was some obligatory- albeit infuriating- nature to question, or the surging tug of panic that made him speak. Whatever it was that catalyst his words, it sure as hell irked her. Ellie turned Bonnie to face him.

"What the fuck does it look like I'm doing?" Ellie asked, acerbic.

"Looks like you're tryin' to get your little ass in trouble," Joel snarled, plopping the buckets in his hand onto the concrete with an audible plunk. The watery feed they contained sloshed over the rim, splashing onto the pavement. Bonnie took note of this, her ears perking, and began at a trot toward the refuse. Despite Ellie's insistent pulling, the mare kept on toward the feed. The horse prodded about the buckets, muzzle curling up at the mixture.

"Just go away, Joel," Ellie moaned, crossing her arms across her chest. She stared petulantly into the distance, brow puckered. "You're not making this easy on me."

"As if it's my job to make things easy for you, kiddo," Joel rasped sarcastically, yanking the bucket away from a protesting Bonnie.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Ellie mumbled, grabbing onto the reins more forcefully.

Joel sighed. "I woke up about twenty minutes ago to find you gone. It was my day to feed the horses anyway, so I figured I'd come down here, thinkin' you'd be here, too. Knew you were doin' somethin' stupid."

Ellie opened her mouth to retort, yet found her words like paste in her throat. In turn, she clamped her lips shut.

Joel raised a brow, drawing the tanned skin of his exhausted face upward. "What? No sassy remark?"

"Shut the fuck up," Ellie hissed, and reared Bonnie in.

"Just get off the goddamn horse, Ellie. You ain't goin' anyway until the rest of the group shows up," Joel heaved heavily.

"Who says I want to go with you all?" Ellie sniffed.

"I thought you volunteered," sneered Joel.

Ellie faltered, then lashed her thick ponytail in the other direction. "I felt up to it until you decided to volunteer after me."

"Jesus, Ellie. You act like you hate me or something."

Ellie threw her hands up to her cheeks, her eyes wide in mock astonishment. "_Me_? Hate _you_? Oh, no...be _realistic_, Joel." She scowled, turning up a lip at the sight of him.

"Get off the horse," Joel ordered, his face hardened.

"No."

"Get off the horse, or I swear to God I'll drag you off of it," Joel growled. He released the buckets from his hands.

"Please stop shitting me. Right, as if you'd-" Ellie started, yet shrieked at the sensation of Joel's hands about her waist, yanking her from the stirrups, and relinquishing her onto the cold concrete. "Fuck, Joel!"

Joel disregarded her. He snatched up Bonnie's reins, and led her back into the stables with stiff strides. "I don't want you anywhere near this horse until the others arrive."

"You can't tell me what to do, Joel. I'm eighteen- I'm not some kid," Ellie objected, hurrying to catch up with him.

Joel glanced down at her, a mirthless smirk skittering across his lips. "Really? 'Cuz you sure as hell _look_ like a kid."

Ellie narrowed her fiery green eyes, and raised her tiny fist to strike him. "I swear, Joel, I'm gonna fucking punch you."

"You need to calm down." Joel seized her by the shoulders, urging her toward the door. "Get back to the house. I'll get you when we're ready."

**A/N: Stressful day at school, so here's what I could manage. Sorry that it's short! **

**And please, if I have any errors, ignore them. I wrote this twenty minutes ago- I feel like I'm going to pass out! Haha. **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: We get a closer look into what happened five months prior. **

Chapter Three

Ellie's forehead lolled against the window glass. She shuffled her fingers along the pane, exhaling. Her breath whitened the glass, forming a sheen across her warped reflection.

A bitter slash of remorse reverberated its agony across her lungs, her chest, her heart. S

he inhaled, an acerbic tang rising in her throat, and collapsed onto the couch.

Ellie laced her arms about her chest, crossed her legs, stared across the stout room. Her eyes twitched to the window, and she blinked languidly.

It was Joel who was to blame. For _everything_.

Ellie melded back into the mangy, pewter cushions, and released a shuddering exhale. She felt the recollection's incursion before she could stop it. Though five months stale, the memory was almost palpable...

She had just awoke to find Joel absent from the house. Suspecting he'd be at Tommy's, Ellie crept from her room and out into the sweltering summer air. She slipped among rows of monotonous abodes, feeling nothing but the near-blank curtain of sky overhead.

A light flickered wanly in the distance, and she crossed the territory of asphalt and concrete to greet it. The door was ajar. She knew he was there. Twin silhouettes cast bleary shadows across the walls, shifting constantly to match the owner's movements.

"...You should of seen her on that table, Tommy. She looked...she looked dead," came the voice of Joel. His tone wavered as he spoke.

"What did you do?" Tommy's voice invaded the silence.

"I..." Joel's shadow quivered all the wall as he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "I killed the doctor, the nurses. I took her and ran. They followed me, but I got her in time. When we made it down, Marlene was there, and she..." Joel's shadow palpitated to the right, and he continued. "...I shot her."

"_What_?"

"She was going to come after her, Tommy, I had to-"

"What did you tell Ellie? After she woke up?" Tommy grunted.

"I told her they'd stopped lookin' for a cure," Joel's voice was scarcely a whisper.

"Well? _Did_ they stop?" Tommy inquired, an impatient sharpness to his voice.

"...No."

"Why didn't you tell me all this earlier? Why the hell would you lie to her?"

Joel hesitated. "I didn't want to lose her."

She recalled, then, the pounding of her own feet across the gravel, sprinting back toward home. Snatching up her battered bag. Clambering over the fence. Bolting for the woods. Stumbling through the aphotic enigma.

Evidently, the two brothers were ignorant of her spying. She managed a flight of about two miles before Joel located her, shriveled in the darkness, mute and disconcerted.

And that was when the rift between them began.

...Ellie's eyes snapped open, and she inhaled quickly.

She groped for something, anything, and found herself hunched on the rug.

Of course she knew beforehand.

Of course she knew he was lying.

Of course she would persecute him for it.

What trust they had so formally cultivated had been blown asunder in a matter of seconds.

The one minuscule fact that he had lied for years, never confessed, sent her ablaze.

Ellie rose on quavering legs as her mind digressed from the thoughts, listless and prone to wanderlust, slowly began to meld to a sort of semblance.

She leaned her head against the floor, taking solace in the slight warmth it radiated.

She pawed away the saline tears congregating at her eyes, and sniffed.

She was about to turn and head for the bedroom when a knock resounded from the front door.

**A/N: Short, but I've got to get homework done.**


End file.
